Top Originators 2011: #4: 2011 Top Dollar Volume

Harinder Johar closed nearly $204 million in loans this past year — and it wasn’t even an entire year’s worth of work for him.

“For the first three months [of 2011], I was really sick,” he says. “I probably originated less than $8 million in January, February and March.”

Those first few months might have been rough on him, but Johar caught up quickly. He says that in fourth-quarter ‘11 alone, he closed around $106 million in loans. “My last quarter was about 50 percent of my business,” he says.

That business mostly consisted of refinances: Johar closed more than $181 million in refis and about $22 million in purchases. The precise makeup of his business isn’t overly important to Johar, however. “I don’t differentiate between the types of business I do,” he says. “Business is business, be it refi or be it purchase.”

Regardless of the type of loan he’s closing, Johar says that all of his business has one thing in common. “It’s all referral-based,” he says. “I’ve never gone back to a client and changed the deal on them, so that gives me a lot of referrals.”

Working out of Boston, Johar’s 2012 origination already is showing promise. Still, he says that the year could be less productive if rates increase and the market becomes more purchase-based. Nonetheless, Johar has plenty of reasons to be optimistic. “In January and February, I’ve already closed about $38 million,” he says, “so it can’t be that bad of a year.”